TCPS announces change in leadership

TUPELO – Tupelo Christian Preparatory School on Tuesday announced that Headmaster David Culpepper had been let go, effective immediately.
The board will begin seeking a new headmaster for the school, although it has yet to outline that process.
TCPS board chairman Michael Lindsey said the decision was not the result of any impropriety or disagreement but that the board felt it was time to move the school in a different direction.
“The board, in looking to the future, felt a change in leadership was necessary to move TCPS forward into the next phase of being the school we feel God desires it to be,” Lindsey said in a press release issued late Tuesday afternoon.
Lindsey said that the board had been discussing the school’s future over the past five or six weeks and that the headmaster position was part of those discussions. The board notified Culpepper on Tuesday, Lindsey said, and the discussion was amicable.
Culpepper, who has been at the school for five years, declined comment beyond a letter that the board had sent to the school’s parents. The letter does not contain comments from Culpepper but said that the board “felt a change in leadership (was) necessary to move TCPS forward.”
“Mr. Culpepper had led TCPS through an arduous accreditation process, and a very challenging financial period,” the letter said. “The board, along with our many TCPS families, is appreciative of the work and contributions he has provided our school.”
The timing of the decision came because the beginning of the calendar year is a time when schools generally search for new headmasters, Lindsey said.
During the interim, elementary and high school administrators will be taking on additional responsibilities and the board will be taking a more active role in the school’s day-to-day operation, the press release said.
chris.kieffer@journalinc.com